Jesús has been a secretary in Fonfría (Zamora) all his life, but in November 2021 the time has come to retire. And with his departure after three decades as a piece that moved the wheels of the council, complications for municipal life. And as the mayor of this city near the border with Portugal, Sergio López, points out, “a municipal council without a secretary is not viable”. “We can’t work,” he says of a general feeling, because in small towns like his – eight villages with less than a thousand inhabitants – they are also the controllers and through them “absolutely everything happens.” passes”, from salaries to demands. for subsidies, paying bills… But convincing someone to accept this position is not easy, even if it is a position that, in theory, is filled by the public opposition convened by the General Administration of the State and which makes this dream of many of them come true. “Rural areas are not attractive,” believes Sergio, delighted to see that the third time seems to have won and that they have found a new secretary. This is Luis S. Velasco, who has held this position since the end of July this year. He signed up for this pool of temporary workers called in an extraordinary way by the Junta de Castilla y León, which gives life to many cities that were struggling and wanted to find a secretary. “Super agile”, defends the mayor of the “good” functioning of this exchange to which he turned after noting that two secretaries who had arrived ended up leaving for other positions. Thirteen days on average is the time it takes to respond to a request from the municipality, explains Emilio Arroita, general director of local administration at the Commission. Certainly, he recognizes, in certain cases this can be delayed “up to a month” due to resignations, but this formula is much more agile than the usual competition and “costs nothing” to the councils, which do not lose the possibility of launching their offer, he underlines. “We cover all the requests” that reach the presidency, he believes. And they enter “every week”, he emphasizes, since this route was arbitrated in September 2023 due to complaints and the impossibility of many town halls to find a municipal secretary, who, according to the legislation, must be a nationally qualified person. “There are still requests,” says Arroita, because multiple circumstances can give rise to this vacant position: retirement, extended sick leave, transfer due to competition… Thus, he emphasizes, the stock market fluctuates given that it is a “very mobile” position. “A lot of work” A system to cover this part without which “a town hall does not work” and which allowed 381 to have succeeded in satisfying their request in this time. To date, the Council has made 110 appointments to municipal group positions – it is common for small towns to split and half-pay for this position – and 93 have appointed a secretary for themselves. They represent a “very significant percentage” of the 1,611 places available in Castile and León, says the general director of local administration. More than 23 percent of the total, also taking into account that the positions that this pool can cover are IT secretary positions, third category. Yet these are the ones that correspond to “97 percent” of town halls, says Arroita. This is the case of the one that remained vacant in Fonfría, where its mayor breathes a little easier given that Luis arrived with the intention of staying at City Hall. He corroborates it. With a resounding “yes”, he answers the question of whether he sees himself there in years. And he is more than happy with his new job, and that means, with “a lot of dizziness”, leaving his “comfort zone”. Holder of a permanent position in the private company in Valladolid, where he lives, it was his wife – a civil servant – who encouraged him to register for this pool, convinced that “he would fit in.” “. A law graduate, although he has never practiced and has devoted his career to “playing in different fields” – from commerce to logistics or human resources – he admits that “from the first moment” he found the College “very interesting”. professionals value the approach, but consider it as a “patch” With the aim of “protecting the profession”, from the start, the College of Secretaries, Auditors and Treasurers (Cosital) participated “actively” in the development of the Council’s regulations to try to fill the vacant positions of secretaries in the cities. The objective, underlines its president, Raúl Elvira, is to guarantee that the elected officials after the exam have “a minimum of knowledge” on a task which, according to them, is essential in the daily life of the town hall, but does not is not. always known. They consider it a step, but, he adds, they see it as “a patch” and not the solution. “We must be aware that town halls should not be closed” because their residents “have the same rights” as those who live in a city, but given the difficulties in filling these places, he suggests that in cities where it is difficult, the possibility for the municipalities to exercise these functions, but for an administrative assistant to take care of the residents on site. So he tried his luck, completed the training, checking that among the candidates there were “many people” between 40 and 60 years old. so many young people, and approved. “Very urban,” as she admits, “I didn’t hesitate for a single moment” when she was offered the job in Fonfría, even though it is 150 kilometers away. “Every day I love cities more,” says Luis, who, at 52, has changed his professional life. “It’s important to have challenges,” he insists. And it is the one in which “he learns something new every day”, he values a work in which he discovered “to his great surprise” that “there is a lot of work”. He benefits from the support of an administrative assistant and the help he appreciates from the Municipal Advisory Service of the Provincial Delegation of Zamora. These are Fonfría and seven annexes (Arcillera, Bermillo de Alba, Brandilanes, Castro de Alcañices, Ceadea, Fornillos and Moveros), which “for good and especially for evil multiplies the task by eight”, recognizes the mayor. Although the position is temporary, having someone on a daily basis means that “nothing is paralyzed”, the councilor values this often overlooked, but essential work for which he found a lifeline thanks to the scholarship. that “they don’t like the place”, they offered them certain facilities. He has at his disposal the use of a municipal house where Luis stays one day a week to travel fewer kilometers and also integrate into city life. And another, teleworking, which also serves to accomplish tasks that become more complicated on a daily basis and the constant flow of neighbors, because “in a city everything ends at the town hall even if it is not directly for us”. But “we are here to give a helping hand to the neighbors,” he defends. A little more than three months after taking office, his results “are good”. He is “very happy” with the treatment and the work, even if, he admits, the distance he has to travel every day “is longer” than before. At least for now it is not as heavy as I imagined, although the section of the N-122 between Zamora and Fonfría, destination of the border with Portugal, remains underdeveloped. “It’s the worst part” of his routine, he says, joining the voices calling for the expected transformation into a highway. Luis travels around 1,000 kilometers per week to get to his new job. In terms of hours, “it’s not very different from the days in many cities”, he emphasizes, since he leaves his home around 6:30 p.m. and returns before 4:00 p.m. Before, he left at the same time and arrived shortly before. “It is more important to be comfortable”, says this occasion where we have already proven “the importance” of the work of secretary for the daily life of a town hall. Related news standard No A thousand students are now being trained to become municipal secretaries. Carnero, who inaugurated the course in Valladolid, warns that in many small municipalities “if there is no secretary, there will be no mayors” “A municipal council without a secretary, it doesn’t work” , the Director General of Local Administration also agrees on the importance of providing these positions to the municipalities But, underlines Arroita about this exchange created by the Council, “managing all this is very complicated”. satisfaction that in the “anonymous” evaluation survey that they launched to councilors and temporary workers, the result is good “Especially the mayors are very happy, because not having a secretary is the worst thing that can happen to them. a mayor”, he admits. Of the 2,000 candidates, a thousand were successful, even if, underlines the general director, the scholarship fluctuates according to entries and exits. And he has clear rules: if the first job offer is rejected, you are moved to the bottom of the list, and if the second is rejected, you are kicked out.
